The present invention relates to hand-held nibbling machines and, more particularly, to such machines which are adapted to provide a variable length between their housing and their work station.
Hand-held nibbling machines are desirably employed for making cutouts in sheet metal and plate workpieces. These cutouts may be relatively complex in configuration and may have to follow contours in the workpiece such as corrugations, ribs and the like. Exemplary of such machines are those illustrated and described in Leibinger U.S. Pat. No. 3,025,600 and in U. K. Patent No. 672,857.
Because the manipulatable housing contains the motor and transmission to convert the rotary motion of the motor to a reciprocating linear motion, its size and configuration can limit the workpieces upon which it may be used because the housing is not maneuverable within the contours of the workpiece, such as between ribs and the like. To enable nibbling in areas of workpieces with deep and/or steep contours, it is sometimes necessary to use a machine having a relatively long narrow section between the manipulatable housing and the work station defined by the cooperating punch and die. However, such a long section makes the machine more difficult to handle and it may preclude its usage in other restricted areas. Thus, it is not uncommon to have two or more machines with different lengths to enable nibbling of workpieces of different contours or different areas of the same workpiece.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel hand-held nibbling machine which is variable in the length between housing and the work station to enable facile utilization in cutting contoured workpieces.
It is also an object to provide such a nibbling machine in which the length of the ram may be readily varied by insertion and removal of extension members.
It is another object to provide such a nibbling machine which may be fabricated from rugged components to ensure long life and which may be readily assembled.